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1914Thanhouser CompanyOne reelDrama

A Dog’s Good Deed

No copy you can watch online. No print is known to survive. What follows is what does: the release, the cast, the story, and what the trade press said at the time.

The story

“Mr. and Mrs. Gladwin, a wealthy, childless couple, make the mistake of lavishing upon a dog all the affection and care which should have gone to some forlorn human being. The dog is not happy in his unnatural surroundings, and on the first opportunity he runs away to the home of Mrs. Smith, the Gladwins’ washerwoman, where he is in his element frolicking with Bobbie Smith’s dog. When the Gladwins find him there, they see their error. They take Mrs. Smith and her boy home to live in their beautiful house, and the two dogs are given a kennel in the yard.”

Summary from Reel Life · 8 August 1914

What the papers said

2 reviews

“A delightful story of dog life, showing the remarkable intelligence and careful training of a handsome collie and a nondescript terrier in their different social surroundings. The collie’s charitable help to the terrier and its little master, makes a pretty little story, and Master Leland Benham and the two canine comedians will afford unbounded delight to young and old alike.”

The Bioscope · 21 January 1915

“The story of a small boy and two dogs. The shepherd belonging to the rich lady hauls a washing home on the wagon for the boy. A slight plot but pleasing.”

The Moving Picture World · 4 September 1914

Have you seen this film, or a print of it?

Prints of films thought lost still turn up in attics, private collections and archives. A record like this one is how the next one gets found.

Tell us about a print

Cast and crew

Cast
Fan Bourke as Bobby’s mother
John Lehnberg
Lass as Bobby’s dog
Leland Benham as Bobby Smith
Lydia Mead
Morgan Jones as Mr. Gladwin
Shep
Virginia Waite as Mrs. Gladwin

Every name opens that person's page, with each film they appear in and which of them you can watch.

Watch instead

Films you can watch from the same company

Matched by cast, director and kind
A frame from A Dog’s Love11:12
1914 · Same leadA Dog’s Love
A frame from The Decoy. A frame from The Decoy (1914), from the Thanhouser restoration on Vimeo.16:08
1914 · Same castThe Decoy
A frame from The Tell-Tale Scar12:09
1914 · Same castThe Tell-Tale Scar

More about this film

From Volume II: Filmography of Q. David Bowers’ Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, reproduced with permission and unchanged. Read the history of 1914 →

Cite as: Bowers, Q. David. Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, “A Dog’s Good Deed”. thanhouser.org/films/a-dog-s-good-deed/

Where a print is held

Held by
No print known